One of the stakes of the future Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform is to analyze the means to pass from an agriculture which exploits the ecosystems in a conventional way to an agriculture which will use the ecosystems in a sustainable way at local level. This new approach will be efficient only if it ensures the production capacity and the competitiveness of the European agriculture, by taking into account the characteristics and the diversity of each region. A new tool, based on the definition of Sustainable Elementary Territorial Units (SETU) will be developed. It should allow characterizing local specificities of rural territories, by taking into consideration social, economic and environmental aspects. The SETU concept will link the citizen responsibility to the capacity for farmers to manage the “produce/preserve” dilemma.

The goal of the AGRIFAIR project is to specify and to recommend to the European Commission the transition pathways to lead to the implementation of various SETU. The project aims at helping young farmers, based in territories with environmental stakes, to develop activities which will guarantee them fixed incomes. The following actions will be carried out:

1. Inventory of the existing tools which take into consideration the territorial dimension of the CAP.
2. Production of a SWOT analysis to select the criteria to take into account to “territorialize ” the CAP by 2020.
3. Definition of a general framework to involve local actors in the definition and the implementation of the SETU in relation with the new multifunctional character of agriculture.
4. Conception of a collaborative tool to gather information on territorial, economic and environmental issues.
5. Realization of four case studies to measure the global acceptability of the concept.
6. Development of a certification system of the SETU platforms to allow farmers to justify their PAC payments.
7. Implementation of an adaptive multi-agent analysis to facilitate the generalization of the SETU concept.

The overall strategy of the action plan is to use the 4 case studies (WP4, 5, 6, 7) in the 4 regions (4 Member States) in order to :
1. Validate and adapt the SETU concept in each region
2. Define the most appropriate transition pathways, adapted to the characteristics of each region
3. Prepare local recommendations for public key-actors including farmers and civil society

These regional approaches should be then certified (WP8).

The generalization of the SETU regional concepts and the transition pathways defined in each region should allow preparing the recommendations at the European, national, regional and local levels (WP9).

To achieve this ambitious objective, the following actions will be carried out:
1. Make an inventory of the existing tools which take into consideration the territorial dimension. Make a SWOT analysis to select the criteria to take into account in order to “territorialize ” the CAP by 2020 (WP1).
2. Definition of a general frame which will allow involving local actors for the definition and implementation of the SETU in relation with the new multifunctional agriculture (WP2).
3. Creation of a tool of collaborative work (intranet and extranet sites) in order to gather information on territorial, economic and environmental issues, resulting from the 4 case studies carried out in regions with different territorial constraints (WP3).
4. Realization of 4 case studies in order to measure the global adaptability of the suggested solutions on the field. The adaptability will be measured at social level by farmers and innovation chains (SETU) as well as by the new agricultural practices to be implemented (WP4, WP5, WP6, WP7, one WP will be attributed to each case study)
5. Development of a certification/contracting system of the SETU platforms which will allow to farmers to justify the payments of the second pillar of the new CAP (WP8)
6. Taking into account the results of the case studies, the generalization of the SETU concept will be examined and several recommendations to the European Commission will be written. These recommendations will include the description of the transition pathways leading to the implementation of the SETU, which will be accessible to farmers and agricultural chains (WP9)
7. The dissemination strategy relies on the development and animation of an internet platform which will be supported by two communication leaflets, five thematic seminars and one final conference (WP3)
8. The exploitation of the project results relies on the labelling process of local products and new farming services, as well as on a contracting and unique certification procedure (WP8, WP9)
9. Three SMEs and one NGO are project partners in the frame of the execution of the four case studies. It is expected that they develop new rural services which will increase their business turnover and profits.

The AGRIFAIR partners will be supported by external skills and expertise by associating directly the Advisory board (which would validate the transition pathways, would review the major deliverables, etc).

The AGRIFAIR project will be carried out in 3 years

The overall budget is 1 966 662 euros and the EU contribution will be 1 498 882 euros